


Petravita

by Disgustedorite



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, Illustrated, Speculative Evolution, Worldbuilding, not meant to be a gem origin story to be clear
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24560791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disgustedorite/pseuds/Disgustedorite
Summary: A tiny self-replicating prototype of Gemkind lands on an unsuspecting young planet. What happens next is very long and complicated.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to TSSL for helping me with the name of the planet, and to KriegsaffeNo9 for naming the Gem prototype!
> 
> Note that this is not a traditional story work, which is why I did not tag any characters--there are literally none. I hope you like pure, uncut worldbuilding.
> 
> EDIT to clarify: Since I know a few people were confused, this is not Homeworld. This is a made-up planet and the prototype will not evolve into Gemkind. Sorry for the confusion.
> 
> Also, as this is pretty unusual, I have no idea what to tag this as. Tag suggestions are welcome!

**Gemkind is artificial**. Sometimes described as "solar-powered robots", **they have no need to eat, sleep, or breathe, and most individuals cannot reproduce and are instead created using machines**. As far as anyone can tell, the eldest known Gem--White Diamond--may have also been the very first Gem to ever exist. For this reason, **by all accounts, it should be impossible to have a speculative evolution project about Gems without massively altering their lore beyond recognition**.

 **Well, apart from the fact that it isn't**.

While it is true that Gems are artificial and reproduce using machines, **this is not the complete story**. Unlike real machines, **they are not hand-constructed** \--instead, **to create a Gem all one has to do is bury specific materials in the ground, more like planting a flower** , and the Gem will simply grow into existence on her own. **One of the materials included is sweat (and possibly other bodily fluids) harvested from the Diamonds** , and there is in-show evidence that **this may actually be the _only_ technically required component**. This means that **Diamonds can theoretically reproduce unassisted** and create any kind of Gem, suggesting that **functionally speaking, Gems are a eusocial polymorphic species**.

While this could be handwaved as magic, as it does exist in-universe, **Gems created by different Diamonds inherit some of that specific Diamond's characteristics**. This includes personality traits, such as how most Gems created by Blue Diamond are calm and diplomatic on some level, and **physical traits** , such as that all gems made by Pink Diamond are pink. **Gems created by more than one Diamond have mixed characteristics** , reflecting all "parents". This would imply that, on some level, **characteristics are being passed on from Diamond "parent" to Gem "child" in a manner which is at the very least analogous to genetics**. Further, as implied by there being multiple Diamonds of different ages, **Diamonds can create other Diamonds who are not identical to themself, implying that mutation is occurring**. Therefore, if the Diamonds were to create more Diamonds who in turn also create more diamonds, **they would experience genetic drift and could eventually even evolve into new "species" of Gem**.  
  
**And, since Gemkind was artificially created, they almost certainly had early prototypes where this was also the case**.

~~~

**Petravita**

For the first billion or so years of its existence, **Petravita was a fairly ordinary primordial Earth-like planet**. It was ruled by microbes similar to Earth's prokaryotes, and **while photosynthesis had already begun, the atmosphere was still almost entirely lacking in oxygen** and there had not yet been a great oxidation event. There was very little dry land, so **most of the planet was covered by a global ocean**. The planet had a healthy amount of **vitality, or "life energy"** , a little-understood type of energy which is naturally found stored in matter and is **required for organic life to function**.

But then one day, _this thing_ showed up.

**The Gemoeba**

Whether it was placed here intentionally by Gemkind's original creators or simply fell out of a damaged ship and somehow landed here, with no sign of any further meddling with the planet's climate or ecosystem **the exact reason for this blobby creature being on this planet is and will likely remain unknown**. Regardless of origin, the impact it will have would be the same.

Despite its amoeba-like appearance, the **Gemoeba** is not a cell. **It is a tiny, non-sentient, self-replicating prototype of Gemkind** , which can do nothing but sweat and move towards light. It consists of a single clear gemstone apparently made of silica, and an amoebic body consisting of hard light held together by trace amounts of water. **Its sweat functions much like that of the Diamonds** , and when it seeps into the sediment **it will use mineral resources and vitality to produce new Gemoebas**.

Like the Gems in Steven Universe, **mature Gemoebas are powered by light** \--but rather than absorbing light with pigments, **invisible features of its gemstone's crystal structure cause light to be converted into vitality as it passes through** , with the gemstone itself serving not only as the core of its being but also as an energy store. Although it uses very little energy to maintain its hard-light body, **the energy stored in its gemstone is required for it to regenerate its body** if it were to be injured. **It is far less efficient than the final iteration of Gemkind** , and as such **it is currently restricted in size to about 100 micrometers in average hard-light body diameter** before it can no longer gain enough energy to regenerate. **Developing Gemoebas buried in sediment have no access to sunlight, so they instead must feed on the vitality present in the ground** , thereby removing vitality from the matter surrounding them and **rendering the sediment hostile to organic life**.

As the Gemoeba's sweat eventually found its way into gaps in the microbial mats which dominated the shallows, more and more Gemoebas were created while **the sediment became increasingly inhospitable to organic life**. Although friction with the ocean currents would cause Gemoebas to slowly wear down and die, returning the vitality in their gemstones to the environment, ultimately **more vitality was being removed than could be replenished**. In only a thousand years, **microbial mats completely vanished from the shallows** , while planktonic microbes continued to thrive, albeit now competing with Gemoebas for space and sunlight.

With vitality levels in the sediment dropping and competition increasing, **it will only be a matter of time before Gemoebas begin to evolve and adapt**. But with no real-world analog to look to, what sort of new niches and body plans could this holographic rock amoeba take on?


	2. The Microbe War: Early Evolution On a Gemoeba

**The descendants of the original Gemoeba changed very little early on**. This was due in part to Gemoebas being unable to avoid hybridizing with one another: **as artificial prototypes never meant to live freely, they had not been designed with speciation in mind, so the sweat of any two individuals--no matter how genetically isolated they were before--would have to mix**. This meant that **deviations from the most popular body plan would be drowned out** , with no way to permanently become reproductively isolated. **This significantly restricted the speed of their evolution--and gave Petravita's native microbes time to adapt**.

**As the Gemoebas, giants among the native microbes despite their size restraints, had little trouble ascending to the surface and pushing native microbes out of their way, inevitably some phytoplankton began to hitch a ride**. It was not long before these **"hitchhiker" microbes** even began to form cohesive colonies on the Gemoebas' hard-light bodies. **However, they avoided the gemstone--if the gemstone was blocked from accessing light, the Gemoeba would run out of energy and die** , effectively becoming a lifeless rock and falling to the bottom of the ocean. The Gemoebas did not have the intelligence nor the evolutionary plasticity to care, and thus tolerated these hitchhikers.

 **Other phytoplankton, however, sought to eliminate competition with Gemoebas and their hitchhikers by killing them**. Upon coming into contact with a Gemoeba's gemstone, these **"smotherer" microbes** would latch onto imperfections in its surface and **multiply until a light-blocking coat was formed**. They did not need to block all light, as long as the Gemoeba uses more energy than it could obtain. **Once the Gemoeba's hard-light body could no longer be maintained and dissipated, the smotherers would let go, letting the Gemoeba and its hitchhikers sink to the bottom of the ocean never to see sunlight again while the smotherers took their place**.

 **Evolving before the Gemoeba could, the hitchhikers countered the threat of the smotherers with poison, starting an evolutionary war**. The smotherers developed a resistance to the poison. The hitchhikers developed a different, protein-based poison. The smotherers responded with their own proteins that rendered the poison harmless. A predatory cell which was immune to all of them started feasting on the warring microbes. The hitchhikers managed to make themselves unappealing and difficult to digest, so the predatory cell would only eat the smotherers. The smotherers started smothering the hitchhikers as well, stealing their unappealing nature so they could just regrow after being eaten off of the gemstone. The hitchhikers tried poison again. **This went back and forth continuously for millennia, until the Gemoebas abruptly forced them to stop**.

**The Gemoeba Joins the War**

**Although the hitchhikers did not kill the Gemoebas, covering their hard-light bodies did restrict the other important factor in evolution--the ability to reproduce**. Gemoeba sweat, which served as their spawn, had a difficult time getting through the microbial coating, meaning that **Gemoebas which had hitchhikers were at a significant evolutionary disadvantage**. Some populations managed to develop ways around the issue, ranging from being able to physically shake the hitchhikers off to periodically intentionally destabilizing their own forms. **However, without the ability to speciate, all solutions would eventually be diluted and drowned out by the louder sweaty signal of the mainstream Gemoeba population**. For a solution to have long-term success, **there had to be a way to prevent interbreeding with the mainstream population** \--and one was lucky enough to do just that.

Although solutions to the hitchhiker problem varied, **there was one solution that had developed several times independently: neoteny**. As neoteny is the retention of juvenile traits into adulthood, **it surely seems like a ludicrous idea--Gemoebas, like Gems, emerge from the ground at full size**. They have no juvenile form to neotenize into. **However, they do have an underground development stage before they emerge--and during that time, much like Gems, they use the vitality present in the matter around them as an energy source**. It takes one simple malfunction to make them **continue to do this after emerging** , which not only removes hitchhikers, but also **kills other competing phytoplankton all around them--including other Gemoebas, which are dependant on their own vitality stores**.

Like other solutions, this one was drowned out several times, but **one instance happened to coincide with an individual losing the ability to reproduce with other Gemoebas at all--producing only clones of itself**. Free of reproductive restrictions, **these clones rapidly multiplied, soon outcompeting other Gemoebas, decimating the organic microbe populations, and causing both hitchhikers and smotherers to go extinct**. The microbe war has finally come to an end, vitality levels are dropping even more rapidly than before, and **the future is looking very grim for the native organic life**.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I hadn't originally intended to cover what the organic microbes are up to until much later! However, since I planned the "slow evolution" thing from the beginning, I figured there should be something to fill the gap waiting for it to pick up.
> 
> As always, I'm still looking for tag suggestions!


End file.
